The liver transplant candidate

Some transplant centres require a demonstration of months of abstinence, to show commitment, before offering transplant to a patient with alcoholic liver disorder. Other centres have no such restrictions. From 6 to 80 per cent of transplant recipients, varying between centres, have recommenced drinking and exceeded safe limits by the end of the first year. Their eventual outcome in terms of quality of life and psychiatric health is no worse than in other transplant patients, and evidence obtained to date suggests that demanding lengthy preoperative abstinence does not improve outcome. ( )

Autism is a developmental disorder that manifests itself in early childhood and affects the functioning of the brain, primarily in the areas of social interaction and communication. Children with autism look like other children but do not play or behave like other children. They must struggle daily to cope and connect with the world around them.